With the fifth anniverary of the attacks of 9/11, a popular topic among bloggers is “are we safer with five years of the Bush doctrine behind us”. Of course there’s no way of knowing that. The correct question is “do you feel safer”? Well, do you?

Consider the following:

The man who instigated 9/11 is alive and well, quite possibly under the protection of our “ally” Pakistan

Our buddies the Pakistanis are providing sanctuary for al Qaeda and the Taliban

We’ve provided even more F-16 fighting falcons for Pakistan, a nuclear power and one of the most rabidly anti-American nations on earth

Our NATO partners are refusing to pony up more troops to counter the re-emergance of the Taliban in Afghanistan

Iraq is disintegrating before our very eyes

Iran is going nuclear any time now

Shia influence is on the rise in the middle east

North Korea has gone public with their nuclear program

For some strange reason, I don’t feel especially safe.

Oh, I almost forgot, the Bush administration’s sweetheart deal with a Dubai company to manage our ports. They almost slipped that by us. Who knows what they have gotten by when we were fighting among ourselves and not paying attention? Oh yeah, and there’s the matter of our government’s failure to secure our borders.

11 responses to “Is America safer?”

Apparently, safety doesn’t matter as much as getting even with Muslims… Priorities, priorities, priorities…America is bad at focusing on the important issues like health insurance, medical care, education…and we’re having a bit of an energy crisis, not to mention the sorry state of our economy.

lightcontrast and gizo — we’ve got a mess on our hands, that’s for sure. It’s what happens when government gets a virtual blank check, no matter what that check’s supposed to be for. Hopefully a talented public servant will emerge in 2008. If so, he’ll almost certainly be from a third part.

J, I would support a third party. But would a third party get enough momentum or support? In US politics, it seems to be a two-party show, each side diving for each other’s throats. Or am I missing something? I regularly check the news and I’ve never seen an article about a third party gaining ground. The election in which Bush Sr. won, a third party only succeeded in splitting the votes and the conservatives were all for it if it meant that liberals wouldn’t win. But at the next election, Clinton won. It’s like a two-edged sword, it could go either way. I wish a third party got more support I really do. I heard that in Australia, they have several parties over there, it’s more fair.

I don’t feel any safer. Of course, before 9/11 I felt almost perfectly safe, and right now, I feel almost perfectly safe. What I’m worried about is the slow decline of genuine American values, like, oh, opportunity and freedom and stuff.

I have to say, this whole terrorism thing is a big, expensive, and sickening joke. WHAT GODDAMNED TERRORISTS? How many terrorists have we arrested in the U.S. since 2001? Now, of those, how many have we charged? I’ll give you a hint, the number is prime, odd, less than 3 (and of that number one of them didn’t actually do anything).

Please, George, stop the spying, killing, profiteering, warmongering, torturing, terrorizing and imperialism in the name of terrorism!!!

x — the threat of terrorism is real. Our inept leaders have, IMHO, made the world much more dangerous with their bungling of the so-called “war on terror”.

I think the professional politicians, or whores, are much more dangerous than the terrorist. Terrorism, the economy, and a myriad of social issues only serve to keep Americans divided and blind to the truth; that the government is corrupt and our political system is broken. Personally I’ll feel safer when we enact term limits, or hang all the professional politicians, which ever proves easiest.

That’s what happens when a leader is given carte blanche access to the government, literally hijacking every institution. Every American I know say they’re much safer outside the US than on the homeland. It was pretty surprising to hear that.